A young man at this construction site was
bragging that he could outdo anyone based on his
strength. He especially made fun of one of the older
workman. After several minutes, the older worker had
enough.

"Why dont you put your money
where you mouth is?" he said. "Ill bet a
weeks wages that I can haul something in a
wheelbarrow over to the other building that you
wont be able to wheel back."

"Youre on, old man,"
the young man replied. "Lets see what
youve got."

The old man reached out and grabbed the
wheelbarrow by the handles. Then nodding to the young
man, he said with a smile, "All right. Get in."

Reaching the end of a job interview,
the Human Resources Officer asked a young Engineer fresh
out of MIT, "And what starting salary were you
looking for?"

The Engineer replies, "In the
region of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits
package."

The interviewer enquires, "Well,
what would you say to a package of 5-weeks vacation, 14
paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching
retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car
leased every 2 years say, a red Corvette?"

The Engineer sits up straight and says,
"Wow! Are you kidding?"

And the interviewer replies,
"Yeah, but you started it."

A hunting party is hopelessly lost.
"I thought you said you were the best guide in
Maine!" one of the hunters angrily said to their
confused leader.

"I am, "replied the guide.
"But I think were in Canada now."

I intend to live forever -
so far so good.

1910

INTERESTING MELANGE. A Chronological Record of Events as they have
Transpired in the City and County since our last Issue.

LARGE BID EUCHRE PARTY.

Ninety Guests
Entertained by

Mesdames
Greenwoodand McMillan Today.

One of the largest bid euchre parties
of the season was given this afternoon by Mrs. John
McMillan with Mrs. Franklin Greenwood.

Ninety guests were invited and among
the number were the Misses Paul and Mesdames G. W. Read,
O. D. Royse, Will Porter and T. G. Wear of Joplin. Misses
Frances and Bryce McMillan opened the door and Miss
Blanch Moore assisted with the score cards. Special
typewritten rules in regard to the play were attached to
each table.

The City Council approved the
formation and appointment of members for a new
Downtown Visioning Committee during the regular
Council meeting Tuesday evening.

According to the document
approved, the charge of the group will be:

"The Downtown Visioning
Committee shall represent the City in the
community-university collaborative visioning
process. Serving as the surrogate client in the
visioning process, the Downtown Visioning
Committee shall seek to represent the various
community constituency groups which they
represent to the fullest of their ability. The
committee members shall be a conduit for the
transmission of information to and from the
various community constituency groups which they
represent.

The Downtown Visioning
Committee shall be responsible for promoting the
visioning process throughout the community and
seeking to enfranchise the full community into
the process.

The Downtown Visioning
Committee members shall attend all public
meetings where the communitys vision is
being discussed.

The Downtown Visioning
Committee shall receive and review the document
prepared by the Center for Community Studies, the
visioning tool kit.

The Downtown Visioning
Committee shall continue to meet after receiving
the document to prepare the communitys long
term vision plan.

The Downtown Visioning
Committee shall devise a process for public
review of their long term vision.

The Downtown Visioning
Committee shall prepare and present a resolution
to the City Council recommending the acceptance
of their long term vision plan."

Not that this is unusual, me
seeing something a bit differently. From what
Ive read, heres a minority opinion.
The Supreme Court of my world often overturns me.

I dont think the new
pavement at Daytona International Speedway is
going to make all that much difference.

Its not that I dont
think pavement in general makes a difference. At
most tracks, it makes the racing worse for a
while. At most tracks, however, the cars are
going as fast as they can. At the two so-called
restrictor-plate tracks (Daytona and Talladega),
the cars are wide open all the way around.
Adhesion isnt an issue. I didnt see
that much difference a few years back at
Talladega, and I think the hosannas currently
being chanted to the heavens at Daytona are
greatly overstated.

Ive got a feeling
Im going to long for the old bumpy days,
though I certainly dont begrudge the
project being completed. Quite obviously, dating
back to the embarrassment of last years
Daytona 500, it was long overdue. But, if it had
been me, I would have confounded the engineers by
instructing them to "repave it bumpy."

Based on the recent Goodyear
tire tests, we are being led to believe that
every lap is going to produce five lead changes.
Well, guess what? If that happens, it wont
really be a good thing. It will open the door to
fast cars at the expense of fast drivers. I
expect it will improve the statistics, not the
racing.

Thats obviously what has
happened at Talladega recently. In 2009, the
races there got some pans from critics because
the first three quarters of the races there were
pretty ho-hum: drivers riding in place, lap after
lap, while some of the real contenders were in
the back, figuratively whistling and learning new
tricks with their yo-yos.

The biggest reason Talladega
enjoyed record numbers in the two 2010 races was
what, basically, was little more than what the
Air Force calls "formation flying." The
first 140 laps or so were pretty much the same as
the tire tests held at Daytona. Drivers
experimented, trying to figure whom they could
trust and whom they couldnt, whether their
cars were faster at the top or bottom of the
banking, etc. A.J. Allmendinger was as likely to
be at the front as Kevin Harvick. Allmendinger
was much more likely to be at the front than many
of the contenders, who bided their time back in
the nether reaches of the field, knowing they had
cars that could be catapulted to the front in the
latter laps.

The fascinating part of plate
races now is watching the contenders rise and the
pretenders fall. Thats when the racing
really gets hairy, wild and wooly, and various
other grooming-derived descriptions.

Sometimes I wonder how the
rest of us would handle havin to get
elected to our job ever couple a four
years.

I suppose those in business
run for reelection evertime a customer
walks in the door. The difference is
customers vote with dollar bills. If they
dont feel they are gettin value,
they go somewhere else to vote.

Course ya dont
have the opportunity to vote anywhere ya want
to for local and County officials.
Probly why folks take area politics so
serious, it effects their day to day
livin.

The thing that ticks me off
is when a business does such a good job of
gettin folks ta vote in their place, it
gets too popular. "Nobody goes
there," as Yogi says, "its
always too crowded."

I always change my own oil on
my cars. I let the car sit overnight and change
the engine oil the next day. My daughter said
that it would be better to change the oil when
the engine is hot, like when I get home from
work. So...which is the preferred method? - Will.

Ray: Your daughters
right, Will. The reason we change the oil when
its warm is because it flows better and
comes out faster.

Tom: Its not a big deal.
But when the oil is cold, its more viscous
(its thicker), so it drains out more
slowly. And even if youre willing to wait
longer for it to drain out, its likely that
a bit more oil will remain coated on the inside
walls of the engine when youre done. Not a
lot more than if the oil was warm, but a little
more.

Ray: So Id say a warm oil
change is a little bit better.

Tom: Now, there is one major
disadvantage to a hot-engine oil change: It
hurts! First of all, when you remove the drain
plug, if you dont know what youre
doing, hot oil can run down your arms. Ray: A lot
of todays cars have oil filters that are
really burried and hard to reach. So the chances
of burning yourself while trying to unscrew on of
those is quite high.

Tom: So, for that reason,
heres what we recommend. First, dont
do the oil change when the engine is red-hot. Let
it sit for half and hour or an hour before
starting your work. The oil will still be warm
enough to flow easily, but the exhaust manifold
wont be glowing red and 800 degrees.

Tom: Or just change the oil
when the engine is cold. Youll get 98
percent of the benefit and keep all your arm
hair.